Chamber Of Advocates Calls For Investigation Into Yorgen Fenech’s Lawyer’s Attempted Journalist Bribe
Malta’s Chamber of Advocates has called for an investigation into the serious allegations involving Yorgen Fenech’s lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran.
Earlier today, Times of Malta journalist Ivan Martin flagged how Caruana Curran offered him a set of €500 notes in return for favourable coverage towards his client. Charles Mercieca, another of Fenech’s defence lawyers, was also present in this meeting.
The Chamber said it shall be asking the Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators, a sub-committee of the Commission for the Administration of Justice, to investigate the alleged conduct.
The Institute of Maltese Journalist also lambasted the alleged attempt at bribery.
“The fact that an experienced defence lawyer misread the journalist’s outreach is serious enough in itself. To add to that a flagrant assumption that for the journalist to do his work, he needed a bribe speaks volumes on the kind of society we are living in today,” it wrote.
“This debasement of the concept of duty and professionalism shows that the wine of values has really reached the dregs.”
Caruana Curran confirmed that he offered “remuneration” to Martin in return for favourable coverage towards Yorgen Fenech, saying the journalist “led them to understand that we could use his services to help neutralise the bias in the reporting in the media.”
Although Martin has been working full-time with Times of Malta since 2013, the lawyer insisted he only found out about this when Martin told him so after rejecting the cash offer.
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